Ever had this BS happen?

I pull an 18' car trailer around for my contracting business quite often. It has hauled just about anything and everything. In a rush to get from one project to another I let my son hook everything up while I did something else. As we were going about 40mph, we crossed a set of RR tracks and you can probably guess where this story is headed, that's right the trailer came unhooked and started passing us on the left. Fortunately no cars, motorcycles or pedestrians were coming so I rode along side the trailer hoping the thing would slow down. Evidently it pulls to the left slightly as it started heading for the left shoulder. I was ready to hit it with my truck if needed, but was really hoping I wouldn't have to resort to that! The trailer then took a sharp left, hit a concrete curb and became airborne for what seemed like an eternity. As it landed it made another left and was finally stopped by a 6' chain link fence and a series of poles! Other than the damage to the fence which I have to pay for, no one was hurt. What a day!...CR

I hate to hear that but Im glad no one was hurt. I pull a 20ft enclosed trailer and I always double and triple check everything inside and outside before I pull out.
Tim

WOW! All things considered Id say yer lucky. RR

used to pull a 36 foot gooseneck around with my grandpa. hauling round bails once for somebody, lost one off the top over some tracks at about sixtyfive. i have since slowed down a little. (and gotten a license.)

You don't cuss your bad luck when something like this happens. You just be gratefull all the posabilities didn't happen. Real glad for you that no one was hurt CR.

It doesn't sound like bad luck.... more like great luck... nobody died.


I had a guy who buys alot of my furniture loose a 24 foot trailer full of it going down the interstate, due to not having the pin in the hitch.
It got in the left hand lane and passed his truck, and got up beside the truck in front of him. Then cars got in behind it. The truck it was passing hit the brakes, and let the trailer go by. Then the cars behind it pulled over in the right lane and started to pass the trailer. It took a while to figure out the trailer was not being pulled by anything. It ended up along a guard rail and scrubbed off alot of speed, then finally came to rest in the grass between the highways. Super lucky.

Yikes, glad no one was hurt. I always double check the trailer if I hook it up and especially when someone else does it. I also stop and check my load often too. Don't want to lose anything.

Had that happen pulling the race car. It funny how it goes faster then you and passes you. Mine ended up taking out a corner of a house.

That same trailer two years later. We just got back from a race about 60 miles away. Went to back it into the garage and the tongue broke off the trailer.

I consider myself to be extremely lucky that no one got hurt. It was just the end to a really crappy day I was having! My son forgot to lock the tongue and hook up the chains. When the trailer fell off he said "what was that?" and I told him the trailer was passing us, he got that deer in the headlight look and I knew exactly what happened! New company rule.... I hook up the trailer!!!! I can't holler at him cause he's bigger and meaner than I am plus I have a lot of years on him!LOL ... CR

sounds scarey, but all in all you were pretty fortunate..esp. that there weren't any other people or vehicles involved....

we all make mistakes, so we thank the Lord no one was hurt, learn from our mistakes, and go on.......one day you and your son will laugh at this story--may be a while, though

a good reminder for us all too[P

That same kind of thing happened here a few years ago. The trailer crossed the center line at about 60 miles and hour and killed two people in the crash. Big law suit going on as the truck and trailer belonged to a farm tractor dealer.

I never had that happen but I saw a boat & trailer come off once up in the hill country & it went across 4 lanes of traffic on a heavily traveled road... barely missed several cars & crashed into a fence. Scared the holy bajeez outta me & I've always triple checked any trailer I've ever hauled since then!

BoB

Why do unhitched trailers accelerate - almost defies the laws of physics? [S

Buddy had a 18' trailer with a ladder rack cut loose, pass him and shove the ladders through the back glass of the mini-van ahead of him. Said it's what saved the trailer. His boss was driving the van and was the one who hooked the trailer.

Bonehead, that is hilarious!

I laid an 18 foot boat up on the trunk lid of a 72 T Bird we owned one time. Some idiot pulled in front of me as I was going down the road at about 50 mph and I hit the brakes hard. The winch stand on the trailer broke loose and the boat rode right up the back of the Bird. Luckily, no damage other than some scratches to the boat and the trunk lid. We actually caused more damage pushing it back onto the trailer than was caused by the accident.

It's pretty strange looking in your rearview mirror and seeing a boat bow up against the rear window.

Don

Your son will NEVER loose a trailer the rest of his life...

Sam's right. It only seems to accelerate when actually the tow vehicle and other alarmed drivers in the vicinity slow down.

...and the lesson here: trailers are dangerous and should be avoided whenever possible!

Last year I was renting a trailer from a different place then I go normaly and where I go normaly the guy just lets me pick the trailer and hook it up and go. This place insisted that they hooked it up...So some young(older then me but inmature) kid wearing a hoody in 10 degree weather starts hooking it up with his hand tucked in his shirt like a little girl,using his feet to nudge things into place. He was just plain acting like he should have to be doing this and he wanted to go inside and play video games. He finished hooking it up and he gets the boss to come out and check it before we left and the guy tears into me for no having the saftey chains hooked up! I just rolled with it like I was retared and got out of there.

Trying to find 2 parking spaces today at a shopping center I had to go to, I have to blow my horn at a woman so she wouldn't back out and hit my truck. As I pass her I feel a big jolt, you guessed it, she backed out without looking again and hit my trailer. Bent the other fender this time! She kept apologizing about my trailer and said don't worry about her car because there wasn't any damage. I think she'll have a different opinion tomorrow. Poor old trailer has been thru hell this week!...CR

towing a mid 60,s bug one time going about 40 we see this tire pass us going about 90 cross two lanes and V a bumper,when we got to the scrapyard we bent 5 stare wrenches trying to those buggers off with out secsess